Chapter Seven
Barr couldn’t believe his luck, for he’d managed to extend his time with Cate before she left for the day. Oddly, he looked forward to her company each day.
God, Travers is going to tease me mercilessly.
Shoving that thought from his mind, he closed and locked the door, then laid the box of decorations on a small table near a leather chair. “Since my wife died, I’ve found collecting and selling rare books has kept my mind occupied. At times, I’ll be lost in one of the books.”
“And then you’ll decide you simply can’t bear to part with it?” she asked as she swept the shelves with her gaze.
“Exactly. There is so much knowledge in the world, and it’s a tempting prospect to tiptoe through all of it without being distracted.”
“I can understand that.” She turned about. “Where are your first editions?”
“Just there.” Barr pointed to the shelf at the far end of the room where the candlelight didn’t quite penetrate. “On the top shelf. That is why the ladder is there. Wheel it over to where you want it and go ahead and make the climb.”
“Truly?” The excitement in her eyes matched her tone.
“Of course. I don’t gatekeep my treasures.” As he spoke, he drifted closer to the ladder. “If you’re afraid of heights, I’ll go up.”
“No, no. I was taken aback that you don’t keep them under lock and key.” Then she hitched up her navy skirting and mounted the first rung of the ladder.
“There is no need. I rarely leave the house, and most I don’t keep under this roof for long.
A few times each year, I attend auctions for rare books and valuable jewelry and the like.
” Did he peek up her skirts as she climbed to reach the top shelf?
Yes, yes he did, for as Travers was keen to remind him, he wasn’t dead yet.
“It amuses me to see how much people will bid on a book that’s labeled as rare or first edition.
Most people don’t care what the subject matter is. They just want bragging rights.”
“That’s what my father says about his colleagues.” When she lifted onto her toes and stretched for the book she wanted, he stood at the bottom of the ladder with his heart in his throat for fear she’d fall. “Oh, good heavens, some of these are marvelous!”
It made him inordinately pleased that she liked his collection. “I think so as well. There are some volumes of Shakespeare, Keats, a bit of everything, really. Even treatises on farming, agriculture, etiquette, and other subjects.”
“You even have books from around the world.” Awe threaded through her voice. “My stars, there is a book of Arabian fairytales!”
He grinned up at her. “Is that something you are interested in?”
“Oh, yes! I adore the stories from far-flung lands. They are so interesting to study, and much different from what we’ve known here.” She caressed the spines with her fingertips with a lover’s touch. “My father would love to see this collection.”
High praise, indeed. “He is welcome anytime, though if what you’ve said of him is true, I might have a difficult time in evicting him.”
A snort of laughter issued from her. “That is very true.” After browsing for a few moments, she came down the ladder.
At the bottom, she turned about and looked at him with desire in her eyes that matched what was pushing through his veins.
“There is something about a library that makes me feel… everything. Don’t you agree? ”
How the hell was he lost already, and he hadn’t yet touched her today? But he nodded and said, “Absolutely.” Then he slipped a hand behind her nape, dragged her roughly to him, and kissed her as if he couldn’t have enough.
Perhaps he couldn’t, for it was much like a match dropping to dry tinder.
It appeared Cate felt the same, for she kissed him back with the same ardor, and when he trapped her between his body and the ladder, she didn’t offer resistance.
As if he were a bee and she had the last bit of honey, Barr slid his palms down her sides and then back up again to cup her breasts through the fabric of her dress.
“Far too many barriers,” he murmured at her lips then eased them along the side of her neck.
The soft skin there drew him onward until he nuzzled the crook of her shoulder while the faint floral scent of her further worked to see him undone.
Eventually, she lifted her arms in order to clutch at the ladder. Her eyes opened and she peered at him with passion-drugged depths, her kiss-swollen lips slightly parted. “Are you a decent man or an indecent man, Barrington?” She cocked a light brown eyebrow, and it nearly sent him over the edge.
“Which do you want me to be?” Damn, he was reckless, at least around her, and what was more, he no longer cared. There was a certain freedom found in giving in to this wicked, scandalous side where he didn’t need to be so careful.
“Right now? I don’t want decent.” She winked and then moistened her lips. “Think you can manage that?”
How much did he adore this strong-willed side of her?
“Let’s find out.” With a bit of a growl, Barr curled his fingers into the bodice of her dress, and with a couple of determined yanks, he had the fabric of the garment down as well as the underclothes, until her breasts were bared to his hungry gaze.
When she gasped, he couldn’t help his grin, for those modest charms were only part of what drew him to her.
The look in her eyes dared him to pleasure her, but when she smiled, used one of her hands to reel him closer with his cravat, that was all the permission he needed.
Once more, he kissed her, took full possession of her lips as he bedeviled her nipples into hard peaks. As soft sounds of pleasure left Cate’s throat, she squirmed on the ladder, her back arching, which put her breasts more firmly into his care.
No words were said; they didn’t need any, for this form of communication was quite enough.
For several moments, they shared kisses and caresses.
He rolled and plucked her nipples until she writhed against that ladder with her eyes closed and her cheeks flushed, the fingers of one hand gripped tight on the side of the ladder.
If given the chance, he could spend an hour concentrating just on her perfect breasts, but he was already hard enough to drill through the wall, so time was of the essence, and this time, he wanted to fully claim her body.
“Barr, I… ooh…”
“Is that what a decent man would do?”
“Well, it is rather basic.” Yet her words held a breathless quality.
“Hmm.” He brushed the pads of his thumbs over her nipples and grinned when a shiver racked her shoulders. “I’ll need to try harder.” Then, dipping his head, he licked one of those lovely buds, before taking it into his mouth.
“Oh, I… Ah…” When she slipped on the ladder, he moved her firmly back onto it, so her arse rested on one of the treads.
“None of that. I’m not done with you yet.
” Barr explored the bits of her body not covered by clothing with his fingers, his tongue, and his lips.
Could he bring her to release without spending in his breeches?
Did he have enough control? They were about to find out.
Putting all thought to his own comfort to the back of his mind, he shoved a hand beneath her skirting to caress the inside of her thighs, urged them as far apart as they could comfortably go.
“I rather think it’s your turn to be driven insane.
” And he dropped to his knees in front of her.
“Dear God.” Her eyes rounded and she shook her head. “That’s not necessary, but…” Those creamy thighs quivered. Anticipation reflected in her gorgeous eyes. “Surely you cannot mean to…”
“Oh, but I do, and I will.” He winked. “My wife didn’t much enjoy this particular act, but I’ll wager you welcome it when a man does wicked things like this, hmm?
” Looking his fill at her private bits, he then flicked his gaze to her face as he sobered for a few seconds.
“Bid me nay, Cate, and I’ll cease immediately.
” After all, this might be a line that was drawn.
Her breathing was already ragged. “I haven’t cried foul yet, have I? Oh!” Her squeal of surprise when he licked that warm flesh at her center tugged a snort from him.
The act of pleasuring a woman orally was something he secretly enjoyed, but he never thought he would have much opportunity for that. From all accounts, Cate liked this type of play, for she’d rested a hand at the back of his head and urged him closer.
As he spread her open with one hand, he continued to caress the inside of her thighs with the other.
Easily he found the pearl at her center, teased it with his tongue, and she shook with the beginnings of sensation.
Soon, he settled on a rhythm he liked, and he repeated the cycle of teasing, suckling, and licking.
The half-stifled sounds she made would drive him mad, and each one was more frantic than the last. Tiny pinpricks of pain kept him on the edge as she pulled his hair and squirmed in his hold only enhanced his own desire, and when she bucked her hips against his mouth, he grinned, hummed at her flesh for she was close.
“How is it you send me to the point of flying so soon?” Her body shook and she tossed her head.
“It’s that damned connection between us, but by all means, let the wave take you.
” Again, he applied himself with renewed effort at that slippery button and dared to penetrate her passage with first one finger and then another as he massaged a specific part of her that should drive her to insanity.
Her gasp of surprise echoed on the air. “How…?”
“You forget that I was married for over twenty years, and in the time since, I haven’t been a monk.” The pursuit of pleasure and learning the secrets to a woman’s body gave him much the same satisfaction that collecting first editions did.
“Oh, you…”
A strangled sort of scream ripped from her throat the second he suckled hard at the nubbin, and he grinned as Cate fell into carnal bliss.
Contractions tremored around his fingers, and his shaft pulsed in response.
Damn, he’d never been so hard, but the discomfort was forgotten as he watched the expressions flit over her face—wonder, pleasure, amazement, exhaustion…
hunger. Though he’d thought her beautiful before; now she was ethereal, angelic, transcendent in that bliss when her back arched and she squirmed while he continued to tease that tiny bundle of nerves, keeping her trapped on that ladder.
“I’ll wager I’m not decent now.”
“No, you are not.” Near hysterical, Cate sagged against the treads. “Dear God.” One hand drifted to a breast to pluck at a pink nipple, and he almost shot his wad right there. Cheeky woman that she was, she met his gaze and that eyebrow rose again. “Is that all you’ve got, Your Grace?”
He tugged a handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket then wiped his cheeks and chin.
“Fuck, no.” What was it about this woman that man him want to break every societal rule there was?
Yet it was somehow freeing to be the man he always assumed he could be, do the things, speak the way he’d always wished but had been bound by responsibility and convention.
With her, there was none of that. In fact, in Cate’s company, there was no expectation beyond the exchange of mutual pleasure. And it was a powerful aphrodisiac.
She pushed off the ladder to let a hand drift down his chest and abdomen until she cupped the hardened bulge at the front of his breeches. “What do you plan to do about it then?”
Now was exactly the moment he’d been waiting for.
Tossing away the handkerchief, he said, “This.” Without further comment, Barr scooped her into his arms, carried her over to one of the leather sofas, laid her on it then followed her down.
“We have danced about this moment long enough, so today, I mean to share more with you than just the preludes.”
And he kissed her again because he could… because he had to; she’d cast her web over him far too well.
I might be in a spot of bother.